Forgetting What's Lost
by Krazy Ky-Sta Hatter
Summary: When the Doctor suddenly forgets two years of his life, Donna has to help him remember. And now, with his determination renewed, the Doctor begins on a quest to find the companion he doesn't recall losing. It would be much easier if he had all the facts.


_**Yes, yes, I know! 'Another one!' Well, someone told me that I should finish a story before I posted a new one. And I finished 'Lithium' so I figured I should be allowed to post this. This part is more just a little bit of a vague explanation. Let's see how many of you get it.**_

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**The Retca Flower**

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The Doctor smiled as he watched Donna's face. She was trying her hardest to look as if this planet he had taken her to wasn't very impressive. Sure, he'd taken her to better places before, but this place was still breathtakingly beautiful.

Before them, as far as the eye could see, was a field - a never ending field - of bright blue flowers. It was hard to find anything like them, because the shade was so unique, and to top it off, the flower seemed to shimmer, so it changed colours in different lights. It almost looked like they were standing at the edge of a sea as the wind gently rippled the flowers before them.

You could only just see hints of other flowers and long green grass poking through. At this point in time, it was a beauty untouched by any creature. The only living things that had been here were this planets equivalent of bees and butterflies and other strange insects.

The planet had a sleepy, quiet feel to it. Like nothing could ever harm it… Unfortunately, he knew that was not true.

"Come on," he said. "You know you like it!"

"Whatever," Donna said, the corner of her mouth tilting up.

"Ha! Was that a smile?"

"No," she said stubbornly.

"That was a smile."

"I'm _not_ damn well smiling!" By now, a huge grin was plastered across her face.

"Yes you are, look at you! You're-" Suddenly he stopped mid sentence as a horrible sense of déjà vu passed over him. He felt like he'd had that conversation before… He _knew_ he'd had that conversation before.

His mind flashed back to a time on the TARDIS, new to this body, trying to get someone he cared for to see it was really him. The small smile that had lit up Rose's face as he had insulted her mother…

"Hey, you okay?" Donna asked him, her voice going soft for once.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he said. Donna just stared at him calculatingly for a minute, before she turned back to the flowers.

"These are pretty flowers," she said. He knew it was an obvious attempt to change the subject, and he was thankful about it. That was one of his favourite things about Donna. She knew when to push, and when not to… Okay, she knew _most_ of the time.

So, the Doctor did the only thing he knew how, to get out of this.

"It's the Retca flower," he said. "Quite a rare type of plant… except on this planet. It was loved for its beauty, but sought after for something else. I've bought you to this planet a few weeks before it was first discovered by any species not from here. In a few weeks, a small group of travellers come though and find out these flowers have a very unique property. Then they take it home and mass produce it as a drug. All this land gets torn up. The only place left with these flowers is the Retca farms."

"That's horrible!"

"Yep… Well, it doesn't happen quite as fast as I made it sound. It took them hundreds of years before they had to open the farms. Besides that, the flower is _very_ potent. Let's just say that it's not a safe flower to have in your house."

"What does it do?" she said.

"Well, to put it simply, it era-" Suddenly the sentence ended with an 'oof' when a bright blue light appeared and a man shot out of it, hitting the Doctor down to the ground. Both men groaned, stood up, and dusted all the broken flowers and pollen off them.

"Phew, that was a close one!" the other man said in a heavy American accent.

"Jack!" the Doctor cried in surprise.

Jack looked up from tweaking his Vortex Manipulator, confusion on his face. "Who?" Then he blinked seeing who he'd knocked over, and a very familiar look came across his face. He stuck out his hand in greeting and the Doctor hesitantly accepted it... Who knew where that hand had been. "I'm not sure who this Jack is, but do I wish I was him! I'm Captain John Jones. And you are?"

"John Jones? As in 'Captain John _Paul _Jones'?"

"That's me!" Jack grinned, not letting go of the Doctor's hand.

"Bloody hell, how many alias's do you have?"

"Quite a few," Jack laughed.

"And you seem to have a thing for captains."

"Okay, I'll admit that one. But I really am Captain of my squad at the Time Agency. You seem to _actually_ know me. I'm assuming I'm going to meet you in the future, then?"

"Yep, so it's probably best if you scoot off."

"Me?! Why not you?"

"Because I was here first," the Doctor said.

"Would you two stop acting like children!" Donna snapped.

"I was not," the Doctor said sulkily. Jack's reaction, however, was both very different... and expected.

"Well, hello to the fiery redhead. Who might you be?"

"Do you flirt with everyone?"

"Yes. Yes he does. And not just everyone, everything. You should have seen some of the hassles he got me and Rose into!"

"Rose?" Jack said, sounding slightly excited.

"No. No way, Captain Flirts-a lot! You are not aloud to go near her in the future. Got it?"

"Someone sounds jealous," Jack said.

"Course he is!" Donna scoffed. "He's head over heals for her."

"Donna!"

"Well, where is she? I want to meet her?" Jack said. As he grinned brightly, the smiles fell of everyone else's face.

"She's gone," the Doctor said darkly.

"Oh… Oh, I'm sorry." Jack stood there awkwardly for a moment, then his Vortex Manipulator bleeped.

"_Captain, are you alright? Respond_."

"This is Captain Jones. I'm fine."

"_Oh, god, is that what you're going by now? Anyway, you're needed back at base. Captain Harkness wants a word with you_."

"You - you're kidding? The big top man wants to see me? What for?"

"_Beats me? That man never sees anyone directly. Hey, when you meet him, tell me what he looks like."_

"Will do." He stopped the communication and turned back to them. "Sorry folks, got to dash. I'm about to meet the most important man in the Time Agency!" Then, with a single tap on the Vortex Manipulator, he was gone.

"Hang on… He said Captain Harkness… it can't be… _He's_ the head of the Time Agency? Oh, he is going to get one _hell _of a shock."

"Why?" Donna asked. "I Don't get it."

"In our time, Jack is immortal, and is the head of an institute called Torchwood."

"Ain't they the people who were digging that hole under the Thames?"

"That's them… Although, he's a different branch, the Cardiff branch. I'm guessing that Torchwood somehow develops into the Time Agency when humans discover time travel, or Jack starts it up or something. Either way, right now, that man we just saw knows nothing about his future. He doesn't know that he will become immortal, and he doesn't know that quite soon, he'll take on the alias 'Captain Jack Harkness'. He has just been called to meet the mysterious Head of the Time Agency, Captain Jack Harkness."

"Wow! Bloody hell, that would be entertaining to see. Did he tell you about that? What was his reaction?"

"No, he never did," the Doctor said curiously. "And I'm pretty sure he would have asked me about that… Must be part of the two years he didn't remember."

"How do you just forget two years?!" Donna cried as he led them back into the TARDIS.

"Well, he said that the Time Agency stole two years of his life. It's why he went rouge. And if he never went rouge, then we never would have met him… and he never would have saved Rose from falling off a drifting barrage balloon in the middle of a German air raid during the Blitz. So, I kind of owe them one."

"Do I even want to know?" Donna laughed, plonking herself on the pilot seat. The Doctor grinned as he sent them off into the Vortex.

"Actually, it's quite an interesting story. I didn't look like this at all. I was a different person… something Time Lords do to cheat death. So, I was a slightly older, grouchy, had big ears and a thing for leather jackets. We were after a code mauve, and ended up in the Blitz. And Rose…" He had a huge grin on his face as he remembered this part, but it slowly faded away. "She, ah, she was wearing this… union jack shirt," he continued, less excited. "Anyway, I was asking the locals if they'd seen what we were looking for, and she wandered off, as always." Pausing, he stumbled slightly, gripping to the console, and blinking like his vision was off.

"Are you okay?" Donna asked him. This was very odd for him.

"No, yeah, I'm fine," he told her. "So, anyway, I…" He almost toppled back a bit and his hand went to his head.

"Doctor?"

"It's okay, bit of a headache."

"Why don't you go lie down," she suggested.

"Don't worry, Donna, I'm fine-"

"No. You are going to bed. Right now, Spaceman!"

The Doctor looked at Donna, evenly. He didn't like being bossed about, especially not by a grouchy redhead, no matter how much he liked her. He sighed when his vision blurred and swayed before him. If he didn't sit _down_ soon, he was going to fall there. He really ought to do as she said.

"Fine. But you know I'm going to bored as anything, right?"

"Just go," Donna sighed.

"Alright, alright. I'm going."

He walked out of the console room, trying to muffle his grunt as he walked into the wall. The last thing he needed now was Donna teasing him some more. He would only rest for a little while, just till this feeling passed.

He was probably going to bored as anything. Maybe he would tinker with something, or work on cracking the equation that would help him break through safely into the other universe. He had to do something… but he never got the chance. The second he reached his room, he fell, unconscious, onto his bed.


End file.
